"We're making a commitment to military personnel and the units stationed in Hawai'i," said Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, a member of the subcommittee. "This construction will help the military, and it will help Hawai'i."

The Army is converting seven of its brigades around the country to the Strykers — highly mobile vehicles far quicker than tanks. It's another step toward reshaping the Army into a force that can respond to multiple, unconventional and fast-developing threats around the globe.

The Hawai'i brigade — the 2nd Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division (Light) — will include 291 Strykers and about 800 additional soldiers to make up the unit's full complement of 3,500 soldiers.

The Stryker projects at Schofield Barracks include $41 million to continue upgrading Drum Road to Helemano; $24.7 million to continue building a vehicle maintenance facility; and $5.9 million for a modified urban assault course.

In the Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island, $34 million would be used to build a battle-area complex and $9.3 million would go for a tactical-vehicle wash facility.

Another $48 million would continue the 20-year "Whole Barrack Renewal" program to improve living conditions at all soldier housing at Schofield Barracks.

Other projects include $29.7 million for the new Pacific Warfighting Center at Pearl Harbor to be used for training and exercise simulations.

Another $1 million would help clean up environmental contamination at the Ford Island hangar complex that will be used by the Pacific Aviation Museum, which will highlight U.S. aviation from 1913. It is scheduled to open Dec. 7, 2006.

Camp H.M. Smith, the headquarters of Pacific Command, would receive $5.7 million for a new fire station.

Hickam Air Force Base would receive $5.7 million for an intelligence squadron operations facility; $2.5 million to build an F-15 fighter rinse facility; $6.5 million to build a consolidated training facility for the Air Force Reserve; and $7.7 million to continue upgrading the base's electrical distribution system.

One project on President Bush's budget request but deleted from the legislation was $61.5 million to replace the National Security Agency's regional security operations center at Kunia. The construction contracts would not be ready for awarding until 2007, so the subcommittee withheld the money until next year's legislation, Abercrombie said.

"Federal investment has always been a key element in our economy, and it will remain important for our future," Abercrombie said. "The bottom line here is jobs, contracts and small-business survival."

The subcommittee action came a day after Bush signed an $82 billion emergency spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that included a provision preventing the Navy from shifting management functions of key Pacific Fleet commands to a central command at Norfolk, Va.

Sen. Dan K. Inouye, D-Hawai'i, author of the provision, said the Asia-Pacific region must be monitored closely, and he was not convinced that could be best done from the Atlantic.

Inouye told Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld last month that he hoped Rumsfeld "would not support any changes to the operational or administrative control or other management functions of the Pacific Fleet."

Inouye's provision blocks the Navy from making the moves for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

"Such a move would send the wrong message to the international community at a time when the North Koreans are boasting of having nuclear capabilities, when Japan-China relations have hit a rough point, and when the United States and Japan are negotiating a mutual defense pact," Inouye said in a statement.